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Summary

Examines internal changes in North Korea under the expanding rule of Kim Jong Il.

North Korea has long been a country of mystique, both provoking two nuclear crises and receiving aid from the international community and South Korea in more recent times. North Korea under Kim Jong Il examines how internal changes in North Korea since the early 1970s have structured that nation’s apparently provocative nuclear diplomacy and recent economic reform measures. To understand these changes, author Sung Chull Kim uncovers relatively unknown internal aspects of the country under Kim Jong Il’s leadership. His account, based on a thorough examination of primary sources, traces the origins, consolidation, and dissonance of North Korea’s systemic identity. He reveals how official and unofficial developments in the domains of North Korea’s politics, ideology, economics, and intellectual-cultural affairs have brought about system-wide duality, particularly between socialist principles embedded in the official ideology and economic institutions.

“Kim explicates the internal dynamics of North Korean politics under Kim Jong II through an analysis of systemic changes in the North’s national identity since the passing of Kim II Sung.” — CHOICE

“North Korea’s risk-taking policies are hard to understand, but Sung Chull Kim in this well-researched study provides a more profound interpretation of North Korea’s seemingly puzzling behavior than can be found in writings by most other analysts.”— Far Eastern Economic Review

“This book focuses not only upon regime change within North Korea, but also on the personal qualities of Kim Jong Il and his father. It goes beyond the usual sort of political analysis to use systems principles. The result is the most comprehensive and valuable book on North Korea to date.” — Kenneth D. Bailey, author of Sociology and the New Systems Theory: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis

Emergence of the Systemic Identity of North Korea
Embodiment of the System: Functional Differentiation
Systemic Dissonance and Major Conjunctures
Requirement for Systemic Viability: Openness
Tour of the Book

2. Kim Jong Il: The Political Man and His Leadership Character

The Shaping of a Political Personality
The Political Man's Road to Succession
Active-Negative Leadership Character
Implications for Systemic Changes

3. The Party's Strengthening Discipline and Weakening Efficiency

Kim Il Sung's Legacy: From a Mass Party to an Institutionalized Party
Kim Jong Il and Organizational Changes
Party-Life Criticism as a Disciplinary Instrument
The Declining Efficiency of the Party
Dual Implications

4. Military-First Politics and Changes in Party-Military Relations

Power Dynamics and Party-Military Relations
Military-First Politics under Kim Jong Il
Institutional Differentiation between the Party and the Military
Relevance to Kim Jong Il's Management Style

5. Chuch'e in Transformation

Chuch'e and Power Succession
Socialism in Historical Development
Estrangement from Marxism-Leninism
On Capitalism and Opening Up
Reflections on Chuch'e: With Special Reference to Systemic Identity

6. The Fluctuation of Economic Institutions and the Emergence of Entrepreneurship

Institutions of Economic Management: Traditions and Their Dislocation
Increased Local Latitude
The Emergence of Private Entrepreneurs
Informal Transition of Property Rights
Implications for Systemic Dissonance

7. The Changing Roles of Intellectuals

Socialist Transformation and Persecution of Intellectuals
Socialist Mobilization and Changes in the Class Status of Intellectuals
Kim Jong Il's Rise and His Mobilization of Intellectuals
The Perceived "Internal Enemy" in Times of Decaying Socialism
Facilitation of the "Skip-Over Strategy"